US ties Sudan leader’s UN visa to 90-day ceasefire as Khartoum rejects pressure
By Jahanzaib Saqib | SCN NEWS
UNITED NATIONS - A dispute over Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s access to the United Nations General Assembly has become part of Washington’s effort to secure a ceasefire in Sudan, opening a new diplomatic confrontation as Khartoum accused the United States of challenging its sovereignty and the United Nations raised concerns over Burhan’s ability to attend the gathering.
The United States has withheld a visa for Burhan ahead of his planned UNGA appearance, with Sudanese and other sources saying his attendance was made contingent on accepting a U.S.-backed 90-day ceasefire proposal. Burhan had been scheduled to address the General Assembly on Thursday, but a Sudanese source told Reuters that Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salem was expected to speak instead.
The visa dispute gives Washington an unusually direct point of leverage in stalled efforts to halt a war that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023. Reuters reported that U.S. officials linked Burhan’s attendance to a three-month ceasefire proposed by Massad Boulos, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, while the State Department declined to discuss Burhan’s individual visa case.
Sudan escalated its response on Wednesday, rejecting a separate State Department statement that neither the army, the RSF nor their leaders represented legitimate constitutional governance. Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said any viable peace initiative must respect the country’s sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity and national institutions, while also addressing what it described as foreign interference sustaining the conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters in New York, described attempts to mediate an end to Sudan’s war as frustrating, saying parties had repeatedly made commitments only to retreat when they believed battlefield conditions were moving in their favour. Rubio also pointed to the role of outside actors in prolonging the conflict.
Sudan, meanwhile, has taken the visa dispute directly to the United Nations. Its UN ambassador asked Secretary-General António Guterres to intervene with Washington, arguing that failure to issue the visa would prevent the head of a UN member state from participating personally in the General Assembly. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Guterres was “deeply concerned” that a visa had reportedly not been issued and was engaging with the United States over the matter.
The confrontation creates a second layer to the ceasefire negotiations: a dispute over UN access itself. Under the agreement governing the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United States, as host country, has obligations concerning access by representatives of member states. Washington has nevertheless imposed entry restrictions in exceptional cases in the past, making the Burhan dispute potentially significant beyond the Sudan negotiations.
At the centre of the disagreement is the proposed 90-day truce. Sudan’s army raised reservations about the U.S. proposal earlier this year, while Burhan has argued that previous pauses in fighting enabled the RSF and its supporters to regroup. Sudan’s representative also told the Security Council that the government had previously responded to the American proposal and supported a humanitarian truce under conditions that included humanitarian access, civilian protection and RSF withdrawal from areas it occupied.
Washington has taken a different approach, signalling that it wants to increase pressure on all parties that continue the fighting. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the United States was prepared to work with serious partners for peace while seeking to increase the costs for belligerents and networks fuelling the conflict.
The diplomatic fight comes against an increasingly severe humanitarian backdrop. More than 14 million people have been displaced since the war began, according to figures cited by Reuters, while fighting, hunger and disease continue to affect civilians across the country. A UN fact-finding mission this month also said foreign weapons, military technology, fighters and logistical networks were helping sustain the conflict and expanding the ability of the warring sides to strike civilian areas with drones.
The conflict has also produced an increasingly fragmented Sudan. The army has regained territory after early battlefield losses, while the RSF retains significant areas, particularly in Darfur, and has established a rival administration. The economic consequences have deepened the humanitarian crisis, with the Sudanese pound losing nearly half its value in army-controlled territory since the beginning of the summer as the war divides economic resources and pushes basic goods further beyond the reach of civilians.
Diplomatic efforts have increasingly centred on a U.S.-supported “Quad” involving the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, countries regarded as having significant influence over the parties and the wider conflict. But the latest confrontation suggests that disagreements over the terms of a ceasefire are now spilling directly into the diplomacy surrounding UNGA81.
For Washington, withholding Burhan’s access creates pressure to accept an immediate pause in fighting. For Sudan’s army-backed authorities, however, linking participation at the United Nations to acceptance of a particular negotiating proposal is being presented as unacceptable external pressure. Those competing positions now leave the United Nations caught between an urgent push for a ceasefire and a dispute over a member state’s representation at its most important annual gathering.
Whether the visa can still be issued, or whether Salem will definitively replace Burhan at the General Assembly podium, remains unresolved. What is already clear is that Sudan’s war has moved from the margins of UNGA diplomacy into a direct confrontation involving Washington, Khartoum and the United Nations itself.